Mailing list brokers and mailing list companies are skilled at developing and designing mailing lists based on your criteria. An excellent mailing list provider can be the difference between a marketing campaign that succeeds and one that fails. Do your research!

2. Be confident in what you purchase.

In life, you don’t always get what you pay for. Mailing lists that contain expired names, or that are gathered from illegitimate sources, will be ineffective in the short run and may actually damage your business’ reputation in the long run. Be sure that your lists are up-to-date so you can be confident that your lists will deliver optimum results.

3. Take your mailing list for a test drive.

Use your mailing lists effectively to help identify your marketing message. Select several small sections of your mailing list and target each with a different version of your direct marketing mail. Record the results, and then send out the most effective edition of your marketing message to the entire list.

4. Revise regularly.

Mailing lists get outdated as people move in and out of your marketing segment. Establish an ongoing relationship with a mailing list provider and update your list periodically to introduce new prospects and filter out those who are no longer relevant to your demographic.

5. Keep up with your mailing.

Marketing experts say that it usually takes at least seven contacts with a single prospect before they’re ready to take the plunge. Map out a follow-up plan for every piece of mail and email to maximize the ROI on your purchased mailing lists.

For business to business marketers, research shows that case studies and other product information materials often generate better results than promotional offers. However, a recent article at DM News reports that B2B marketers still lean on promotional offers for a majority of their marketing campaigns. The survey asked marketers about the tactics used in their best and worst direct marketing campaigns in the last year and a half, and discovered that “brand/product information such as case studies, pricing tools and other materials that explain a company’s product or service was employed in only 16 percent of the campaigns. Promotional offers, however, were used in 61 percent of the campaigns, many of them the worst-performing campaigns.”

The Agitator, a blog focused on direct marketing strategies for non-profits, directed our attention to a press release by Pitney-Bowes, communicating the results of a mail preference survey conducted by International Communications Research (ICR).

The research shows that “consumers clearly prefer mail over other communications vehicles such as e-mail for receiving new product information and offerings as well as confidential business communications, such as bank statements and financial reports.” The findings in favor of paper mailings are impressive: